The Broken Road
by Kurisuta Tenchi
Summary: Katie Barcher has lost hope in being happy in life. She lives every day in darkness, and walks through the world with no light. Until the day Jason shows up and her world is changed forever. Can she put her heart in his hands?


Hi everyone! Sorry for not posting for soooooooooooo long! But this is a different story, a story I want to publish into a book. I love this because, guess what? "Story of my life" Kinda thing. ^_^

I will work on my other story but I already had this one written down on paper so I decided to post it! So, here was go!

-Revs engine and puts on dynamic goggles!-

Bwa hahahahaha!

I do not own Rascal Flatts or the "Bond" from Twilight.

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Chapter 1: Heavenly Presence

Everyone has a place to go when they're upset right? Someone they can go to when they need to vent? Well I guess that I don't fall into that category, my name is Katie Barcher. I'm not popular, I'm not skinny; I only have one thing in common with the strangers at my school.

My severe depression, and some my age.

Katie finished her diary entry, her hand was steady and still. Her face hard and unfeeling even angry looking, well at least on the outside. On the inside, little Katie was falling apart.

_No one really likes me do they?_

Katie asked herself this repeatedly, every time her heart would split a little more. At the same time, she felt like an empty husk. Unfeeling expect for a deep hurt.

Out of habit, Katie pushed her long messy brown hair back and behind her ear. Then, she frowned and put it back where it had been on her face. Not wanting others to see her turmoil.

Katie sat in the right side of her science classroom. In plain sight, yet no one ever saw her, talked to her. So Katie returned the favor by not talking to them. Though Katie did watch them, and she wished she didn't.

So many people had someone to go to, to love dnad to be loved. It pulled another tear in her heart whenever she saw boyfriends and girlfriends together. Kissing, hugging, something Katie believed she didn't deserve.

Katie looked emotionlessly at the covered up clock on the right side of the room. The teacher believed it would distract them if they kept looking at the clock to see if it was time to go. She assumed it insulted him, since he was trying so hard to teach them.

Katie had a mixed view on teachers, they taught her what she needed to know, and that was it. They didn't care for her, why should they? It was only a job. Teachers never helped her, in middle school there had been a boy named Marcus who wouldn't leave her alone. He and his little friend Jorden would harass her and not in a way you could simply tolerate.

They physically and sexually harassed her. Touching her hair or shoulder as she walked by, calling her embarrassing names. Continually thinking she was theirs, it made Katie sick.

Katie asked for help, but never got it. The harassment continued and it made Katie miserable. Until she got up the gall to fight back the only way she knew how. She hit and punched and yelled and screamed.

It got them away, but they always came back, and more just filled their dirty shoes. Picking on her and pushing her around, Katie would yell and scream her silent cry for help that always went unanswered.

Katie sighed and turned her head to the front of the room. Looking at a covered clock was useless, she would just have to sit there and wait. Her eyes stuck to the white dry-erase board, trying to make time pass faster.

Anyone who looked at Katie instantly thought, tomboy. Everyday Katie wore blue jeans, a long sleeved shirt, and a large dark jacket. Very conservative, and so very secluded.

Finally the bell rang and Katie rose from her seat with her notebook and wooden pencil. Today was the first day of school, why bring a back-pack? Katie walked the halls slowly, her presence a mere shadow on the wall. Her footsteps as silent as death, her thoughts were a dark cloud.

Katie was snapped out of her thoughts as a boy approached, his tall, looming appearance made Katie keep a two foot distance away from him as she past him by.

His name was Garvis, someone who Katie used to trust above all others. Now, he was one of the many demons that haunted her dreams. The saddest thing was, Katie felt pity for him instead of anger. A loss of his friendship, but the anger, no matter how small, was still there. A silent storm threatening to blow away Katie's self-control. As Garvis past her by, she heard him mutter a.

"Hello Katie." His voice was emotionless, just like Katie's face.

She walked past him and toward the cafeteria.

Who does he think he's kidding? I'm not going to listen to him.

"Hi Katie!" A girl approached Katie, she had a large grin plastered on her face. This girl was a little short of five foot with brown hair and brown eyes. Though unlike Katie, this girl was extremely skinny, but just the right skinny. Still she could stand to gain some weight.

"Hey Natalie." Katie muttered, not unpleasantly, thought quietly.

"What's up?" Natalie asked.

"Going to class." Katie unconsciously checked Natalie for bruises or messed up hair, then she had to ask.

"Has he bothered you today?" Natalie's smile faded, and a frown formed. Her eyes evaded Katie's, trying to ignore the question.

"Natalie." Katie asked with suspicion, she looked at Natalie's face, her eyes for an answer. None came.

"Natalie, did he talk to you? Did he hurt you?!" Katie asked the last part with anger in her tone.

Natalie shook her head slowly.

"No, he didn't hurt me, we just talked." She didn't sound honest, but she also sounded fearful.

Katie was going to kill Garvis.

That would have to wait unfortunately, because if Katie didn't hurry, she would miss the bus to her next class.

"I've got to go; we'll talk about this later okay?" Natalie would be glad she would be able to think it over.

"Okay bye." Katie hugged her friend and then proceeded around her towards the bus. Yes, Katie was and Garvis would have a lovely little chat, one that involved a nice kick to where it would do him most good.

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Katie sat on the bus; her anger was coming off in waves. People around her seemed ignorant to it, which made her even angrier.

_No one notices do they? No one will ever notice, no one._

The thought mad Katie want to cry, but she wouldn't, not here. Not while people may see past her hair or hear her. Katie never cried in front of anyone, not anymore anyway. The only one that had seen her cry in the past few years was Natalie. That was also why Katie had the need to protect her friend.

The bus came to a screeching halt, letting out a breath of air as if to calm itself. Its doors opened, and freshmen piled out, including Katie who had been at the back of the bus. Her mood darker than usual, Katie stepped off the bus with a violent aura around her. Though Katie knew she would never be able to hit someone.

She spotted a short, large man near a portable. He was waving to her and the other students.

"Come my little brussel sprouts!" He sounded like Santa, great, jolly old fat man teacher a military program. Though, he seemed rather nice, but you never knew.

Before Katie walked into the portable, she looked around. There was a giant old building across from the portable, gym perhaps? It was certainly old, and the paint on the side was peeling off.

Another significant building she saw, was another old building right beside the portable. Beside the door, there was a sign that read, "JROTC" in big bold red letters.

_So why aren't we in there?_

Katie thought, and then she walked up the short stairs and into the portable.

* * *

"Welcome to JROTC!" The teacher was too jolly for his own good. A huge grin was plastered on his tan face, and he seemed to have a hearing problem, because he would yell every now and then. Or maybe it was because in the span of the first five minutes, half the people in the room had started to fall asleep.

Except for Katie who tried to stay perfectly still but failed because she could feel herself flinch. This was ridiculous, Katie wanted to yell and tell him to shut up. Though she knew the consequences for such an action would be dire. Katie had never had detention. EVER. She wasn't about to break her record.

"My name is Sawyer Benson, but you may also call me Sergeant Major, because that was my rank in the army. I warn you now, do not call me Sarg." He turned and wrote the word "Sarg" on the board. Then turned to us, serious as he could be.

"Do you know what Sarge means?" Several heads shook, and Katie just shrugged. Then, he wrote "Whale poop" on the board next to Sarge.

You could hear resounding laughter through the portable; even Katie couldn't stifle her laughter. Her silent giggle went unheard by everyone except herself.

So the lass continued with more laughing as Sergeant Major explained more of the rules. After everything was explained, he turned to a different subject.

"Now, we are going to the gym to do a few group activites with your other teammates…" He leaned toward us and put a hand on his ear.

_He's got to be kidding._

Katie hid her face in her hair, not wanting to call attention to herself. That was when she felt something odd, like something was yanking at her heart. It was easy to ignore, but it was there. Tugging and wanting Katie to get out of her seat.

"The LET three's!" Katie had been so caught up in that little feeling she gasped when Sergeant Major yelled. A few people turned to Katie and chuckled at her. Some just seemed amused by the look on Katie's face. Heat flooded her cheeks, but Katie said nothing. Her mind in utter turmoil, Katie wrapped her arms around her body. To her it was humiliating.

"Alright lets go!" Katie waited until a few people passed her, and then stood when there was an opening. Not in the way, not noticed. Something Katie had become almost an expert in.

As she walked out the portable door, the tugging was there again. Katie wished it would stop, not wanting to feel anything. Praying that the situation from a few minutes ago didn't make her angry, Katie feared her anger, ever since she had quit Karate. Katie didn't have an outlet for her anger. Which made it a little dangerous for people around her that didn't want to be yelled at or punched in the arm or gut. When they made it to the gym, Katie swept her eyes over the crowd of LET twos and threes for a few moments, and then avoided eye contact with them altogether.

Something pulled at her chest again, this one was strong. Katie wanted to raise her head, to see what was causing the disturbance she was feeling.

_Don't, I don't want to know any of them._

Too bad Katie was lying to herself, she wanted to escape the hell she was in, the fighting at school, the fighting at home.

"_You stupid idiot! You ignorant moron!"_

She could hear the words ringing in her head. Katie ignored all of her teachers orders except, "Go sit in the bleachers."

Katie walked away from everyone else; she slowly climbed five steps of the bleachers and way off to the side. The words kept ringing in Katie's head even as she sat down.

"_You know nothing, none cares about you say!"_

Katie pulled her knees to her chest and dropped her head slightly so her long messy hair covered her face. To try and block out the noise, Katie pulled a song from her head, and muttered it to herself so no one could hear her.

"I can take the rain on the roof of this empty house, that don't bother me.." She contined the lines; lines that she had told herself over and over again. As Katie muttered the chorus, her heart started to rip again.

"What hurts the most, was being so close…" Katie was about to mutter the next line, when she heard footsteps on the bleachers, she instantly closed her mouth and clammed up. But the terrible pulling at her heart stopped very suddenly, like a rope becoming slagged. Very slowly, and unknown feeling settled over her, it loosened her muscles and made her brows cross in confusion.

That was when he sat down on the bench Katie was on. Somehow, Katie knew it was a boy, it was a feeling. A deep gut feeling, also another feeling she would rather leave uninspected.

Katie didn't look up when he sat down; she kept facing straight forward. The Rascal Flatts song still playing in her head as well as the haunted tape recordings of her X-friends words. It seemed as if it had become stronger at his presence, more insistent.

"Hey, what's up?"

Everything in Katie seemed to pause, the voices stopped. The song stopped, it seemed that even her heart had skipped a beat. Katie knew she shouldn't look up, but her head and neck muscles seemed to not even consider her instincts. Very slowly, Katie turned her head, her hair shifting slightly away from her face so she could see him.

The instant her eyes focused on him, that unknown feeling seemed to become tangible. She seemed to be able to hear it, see it, and maybe even touch it. It was real, and Katie was instantly addicted like a kid on cocaine.

In that instance of time, Katie's world narrowed, and refocused on the person beside her.

This simple, blue-eyed boy.

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